McComb School District officials are proposing a uniform dress code at the high school for next year — a response, in part, to the school shootings in Newtown, Conn.
High school principal Robert Lamkin told trustees Tuesday that he favors student uniforms to help maintain security at the campus.
“Our kids dress like the community,” he said. “With such an open campus, it’s hard to determine who’s a student and who’s not. We could be put in a very bad situation. We spend a lot of time with security.”
Superintendent Therese Palmertree said the district needs to address the appropriateness of dress by students, many of whom come to school in saggy pants and too much cleavage showing.
“A dress code at the high school will prepare students for the working world,” she said.
Dressing sloppily “is a huge hindrance for young men to get a job,” Palmertree said. “We have to send a message to children that this type of clothing is inappropriate for school and the workplace. ... Their dress is hurting their image. We know their hearts and that they’re good students, but clothes sagging gets (the public’s) attention.”
All other schools in the district have had uniform policies for at least 10 years.
Trustee Bettye Nunnery, whose grandchild is entering high school, said kids look forward to leaving Denman Junior High School and uniforms behind them in favor of their own clothes.
School board president Maurice Chester acknowledged the trend of sloppy dressing and said it doesn’t help when some businesses owners dress like kids.
“All I can say is good luck,” he said. “Kids ‘expressing themselves’ (through their clothing) leads to more babies and juvenile detention.”
Lamkin said having students wear uniforms at McComb High will help identify students and those who are not supposed to be on campus. He said cars are always driving by on Virginia and Louisiana Avenues and on Seventh Street.
And while the great majority of traffic is necessity by local citizens, Lamkin said some people may be looking for trouble as they cruise around the campus. Some even come onto school grounds, he said, noting such visits could be drug- or weapons-related.
“We just don’t know,” he said.
Lamkin mentioned an incident when he was in a classroom and spotted a student who had already graduated. He ordered him out of the school.
Lamkin said uniforms at the high school means students will be dressed alike and will have “a sense of belonging.” And he said uniforms will benefit families economically by saving on clothing costs.
Lamkin planned a meeting this week to get input from parents, students, teachers and community stakeholders about the uniform idea.
Uniforms are only part of the security plan, Lamkin said. He proposes closing some of the streets around the school to keep down traffic, and he suggested some fencing or barricades in the student parking lot.
“We don’t know who’s in our parking lot,” he said, adding that kids from other schools could be on MHS property.
Palmertree said she believes McComb city officials will be open to the idea of closing streets during school hours.
“Now’s the time,” she said, especially in light of the Connecticut shootings.
Barricades used to be in place around the campus, but homeowners in the Virginia Avenue area complained, so they were taken down.
